Bright Moments
by TheBeautyOfTheGrave
Summary: 13/50 of the 50Shuffle Challenge. "All he wanted to do was hold her close to him, tell her that they would have forever if he had his way." Piper/Mark. Dead Man Dating. Not compatible really.


**A/N: This is the first Charmed fic I have written in a long time, and the only Mark/Piper one. For those of you who don't remember [:P] Mark was the Chinese guy in 'Dead Man Dating' -- the ghost Piper fell in love with (: **

**This is 13/50 of the 50Shuffle Challenge and the song is 'Bright Moments' by Malice Mizer. **

After flipping through the Book of Shadows for the hundredth time that hour, Piper closed its ornate cover and descended the Attic stairs. She sighed as she thought of Mark, not having the slightest idea how to help him. Her sadness only deepened as she walked along the ground floor hallway and saw him perched on the edge of the sofa, evidently deep in thought.

"Hey." she smiled at him.

"Hey, found anything?" he said, moving over so that the Charmed One could sit next to him.

"No… I'm sorry. I guess none of our ancestors have come across Yama before. Or any other Chinese 'myths' for that matter."

Trying to hide the sadness in his eyes he smiled at Piper. "Oh well, I guess there is nothing you can do."

"Well my sisters and I may be new to this but we haven't lost an innocent yet and we're not about to. I promise we'll save you. I'll save you…" she whispered, looking at the ground. She could feel his eyes on her and knew that he was smiling.

"Thank you Piper. For everything." They sat in silence for a while, each thinking their own thoughts but no doubt they were on the same track.

"What are you thinking?" Piper asked tenderly.

He laughed. "Oh I don't know. I guess I was thinking of all I wanted to do with my life. Everything I had planned and now…"

"What were your plans?"

"I had nothing set in stone obviously but I wanted to finish school, get a job at some lab, maybe find a cure for something -- I wanted to help people." He paused for a moment as if he was considering whether or not to go on. "…fall in love. For real."

"You've never been in love?"

"No…" he sounded sad.

"How could I guy like you not have had some girl crazy about you?" Mark laughed and shrugged his shoulders. He looked down at Piper. "What about you?"

"Well," she sighed, "maybe. Once, I think." Mark raised an eyebrow and laughed. "You don't sound too sure."

"It was a few weeks ago really. Jeremy. He'd been my boyfriend for like 6 months." Piper stopped. Until this moment she hadn't talked, or even thought properly, about him.

"What happened?"

Piper giggled nervously and sighed. "Warlock. Had to kill him."

"Oh. I'm sorry…" he mumbled, uncertain of what one was supposed to say to someone who was forced to play 'Vanquish or be Vanquished' with their boyfriend.

"It's ok. All for the best really. I guess I don't really know what love is like."

"Yeah… I know what you mean." he sighed. A long silence grew between them in which only Piper's breathing could be heard. "Do you…" Mark broke the silence, "do you want to fall in love tonight?" His face was just inches from Piper's but he knew he could do nothing.

She looked up into the face she had only known for a few hours; she felt as if she had known him all her life. Even as a witch it was hard to understand how a dead person's eyes could look so alive, more so than any living man's. She turned away from him before she became lost.

"What good would it do?" she said, folding her arms and standing from the arm of the sofa. "You won't be here for much longer because…" She attempted in vain to fight back her tears. "…because we're going to save you."

"Piper?" Mark whispered from behind her. She turned around, but avoided his eyes once more.

"It'll just make me wish we had longer…" A tear rolled down her cheek and Mark lifted his hand to brush it away, sighing dismally when he realised he couldn't. All he wanted to do was hold her close to him, tell her that they would have forever if he had his way.

"I think we've had the brightest moments we could have ever hoped for Piper." he whispered into her ear. A sad smile spread across her face and she finally allowed herself to look at him properly again. He raised his hand and held it just a few millimetres from her cheek, moving it up and down slowly to follow the contours of her jaw. She began to speak but Mark shushed her.

"Just close your eyes. Pretend that you can feel my hand on your cheek. Pretend, if you can," he smiled the smile she loved so much to see, "that I'm not dead, and this… this love isn't impossible."

Piper opened her eyes and laughed quietly as more tears, both happy and sad, fell. "So this is love then, huh?"

"Yeah, guess so." He laughed with her, gradually inching closer to her face until he imagined feeling her breath upon his lips. Piper never wanted this moment to end.

It was in that second however that the ornate oak doors smashed against the ground, causing not only the glass to shatter, but also the perfect atmosphere that had been created just minutes before. Two men, who Piper recognised as Wong's henchmen, ran at her and lifted her from the ground. Despite her fighting and screaming against them, they whisked her quickly out of the door before she had a chance to freeze them.

Mark meanwhile, could do nothing but stand by and watch as the love of his life, his only hope, was stolen from him. He collapsed to the ground at the sound of her sister's hurried footsteps, wishing that he could simply die again…

**A/N: I'm not really sure I like this ending… :/ **


End file.
